With Thanksgiving only a few days away I guess it’s time for the obligatory Thanksgiving post.

Ok, so I’m really just joking…although it seems as though it’s the thing to do this time of year I do feel it’s appropriate. It’s so easy to get sucked down into a vortex of negativity sometimes (especially when times are tough and money is tight) that I think it’s all the more important to keep in mind the many things that we have to be thankful for. No matter how difficult life is at any given time there is still something to be grateful for, whether it be your health, your friends, family, a roof over your head…any of it.

In our house we’ve adopted a popular saying: “Life is good”. In our house it’s more than a cute brand of clothing, it’s how we genuinely feel. My husband and I often quote this to one another as we look at our kids, celebrate a birthday or anniversary, or even just revel in an exhausting, yet fun, day. It’s also our acknowledgment of thanks for all that we have (and that has little to do with material things).

So when Thursday rolls around and the scents of Thanksgiving fill your home take a few moments to think of all that you have to be truly thankful for. I guarantee it will bring a smile to your face and your heart.

Audubon International will be in town to present the Town of Henrietta with a Green Community Award. The award recognizes the town, businesses and RH school district’s achievements in areas such as cutting vehicle emissions, preserving land space and educating children on environmental concerns, among other things.

I won’t recount the whole article here but it is worth following the link to see what the Town, businesses and school district have been doing for the last several years to earn this award. And, if you’d like to show your Town pride and share the moment, please attend the public ceremony at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at Town Hall.

Two separate things are prompting me to write tonight: one was a comment made by my husband and the other was a report on Channel 13′s news at 11:00.

First I’ll deal with the news report on Sexting since it’s the most disturbing of the two. It seems that the latest thing for tweens and teens is taking risque pictures and videos with their cell phones and then sending them to each other. I think what I found the most disturbing was that kids as young as 4th grade were doing this!! I can almost understand hormonal high schoolers doing this but kids who are still in grade school?? Yeesh!

One thing I’ve learned in the past 7 years is that I should never judge parents because it’s all too easy to have your own words come back to bite you. I’ve learned that you don’t know what you’ll do until you’re in a particular situation and that it can depend greatly upon the kid involved, as well. So it was particularly hard to control my inner Judge Jo when I saw this report. I wonder why kids so young even have cell phones…much less cell phones with a camera built in. I know they have parental controls on phones for kids…why aren’t parents limiting their child’s access to these features or their friends’ numbers? Can someone please enlighten me?

Then there’s the kid who is being prosecuted as an adult for sending/receiving explicit pictures of a minor. This kid is being charged with felonies that will haunt him for a very long time. Do you think it’s right or fair to treat minors who are caught sexting as adults?

On a far less serious note, my husband and I were talking about Facebook tonight. Facebook, for those of you who may not know about it, is a social networking site, which means that it’s a place to meet and connect with people and waste a lot of otherwise valuable time. That, of course, brings me to my husband’s comment: he said one reason he wouldn’t ever have a Facebook page is because he’s heard too many people talk about the amount of time they waste on it playing games, sending “gifts” and so on.

I have to confess that his comment struck a nerve because I do have a page and I can think of plenty of time that I’ve wasted on it. The other side of that is that social networking sites enable people to connect with one another and keep up with what’s going on in each other’s life. So, what do you think? Do you think social networking sites are an enormous waste of time or do think they serve a useful purpose?

All week long I’ve looked at my leafy lawn and thought big thoughts about doing something about it…like calling the “Lawn Cleanup” number on the poster up the street.

All week long it’s been sunny and unseasonably warm and I’ve thought big thoughts about mowing and raking and cleaning up after the dog…before it was supposed to rain on the weekend.

All week long I’ve successfully managed to push those big thoughts out of my mind and do anything but mow/rake/clean up after the dog. (By the way, why is it MY job to clean up after the dog?! Ah, but I digress.)

So, today found me out on the lawn with many of my fellow Henriettans battling the leaves. As for me, I was mowing in an attempt to eradicate the leaves blanketing my lawn. Hey, it’s a mulching mower, it’ll chop ‘em up into tiny itty-bitty pieces and nourish my lawn, right? Yeah, not so much. My poor little walk-behind bravely fought the good fight until my neighbor rode over on his tractor and rescued us. Together we managed to chew up the leaves sufficiently that my lawn won’t suffocate over the winter. I love him.

Now, before you ask after my husband’s broken leg(s) let me say this: I really enjoy mowing. It’s one of my jobs around the house, and it’s pretty much the only yard work I do enjoy…until this time of year. One reason I enjoy mowing so much is that I find it a form of meditation – it gives me a chance to think and the noise blocks out everything else. (Oh, and I fool myself into thinking it counts as some real exercise, too.)

Today I was thinking deep thoughts about the days of yore. The days when neighborhood kids would go door-to-door asking if they could mow or rake leaves for money. I wistfully envisioned several kids enthusiastically raking up all my leaves (and bagging them, of course) while I did something else like tapping out a blog entry or going to a spa. Then I looked at the three beautiful maple trees on our yard and realized that no kid, then or now, in his/her right mind would everwant to rake our yard.

Tell me, do you have any kids in your neighborhood willing to rake? Is this a lost art? How do you conquer the fall onslaught?

Jody Davies grew up in New York's north country and came to Henrietta as a student at RIT. She has lived in and around Henrietta for over 25 years. She and her husband have two children enrolled in RH schools where she is actively involved in the PTO and as a Girl Scout troop co-leader. When she's not running all over town with the kids, she enjoys sewing, kayaking, reading and marathon Scrabble games with her husband, Sean.